Newborn piglets are covered with amniotic fluid. When drying, the amniotic fluid leaves a fibrous layer of skin that is then removed by contact between the animal and its environment. Until it is completely removed, this skin makes the complete drying of the animal very difficult. A wet piglet loses a lot of energy to maintain its body temperature during the evaporation process and often weakens to a point where it struggles in its search for the nipples. It is very important that each piglet feeds as early as possible after birth to receive an appropriate amount of colostrum which plays a very important role in its early development. In fact, colostrum promotes proper development of its immune system, not to mention it also provides energy.
To accelerate the drying process, some pig producers manually dry every single piglet with a towel. However, this practice is not widespread essentially because it is time-intensive. Other drying techniques are much less time consuming for the user since they are done without the constant input from the worker. These techniques include natural or synthetic drying powders, infrared heating, heating mats, etc. However their drying efficiency is much less than doing it manually.
Newborn piglets are very lethargic at farrowing. It takes a few minutes before they wake up and start their search for feed (nipples). Waking them up gently can accelerate this process.
Smaller, weak, and frail piglets usually get cold at birth and if left unattended, this may lead to what is called the vicious cycle of morbidity. As soon as the piglets get too cold, they will look to rest at a warm area or better yet huddle with its litter mates. This instinctive reaction delays the first feeding which prevents them from ingesting their share of the limited amount of colostrum. Furthermore, chilling predisposes these piglets to disease as well as crushing.